In AZ & OH GOP Senate Candidates Face Backlash As Primaries Intensify

New developments and reporting in Arizona and Ohio over the weekend highlight how GOP Senate primaries across the map are intensifying as Republicans continue to engage in a messy, all-out battle to appease Trump:

• In Arizona, Trump himself attacked potential GOP candidate Mark Brnovich “for being ‘lackluster’ and failing to act on Trump’s [false] claims of election fraud in his state,” leading the National Journal to write how Trump is “complicating the search” for a GOP Senate candidate in the race, POLITICO to point out this “could spell trouble for Brnovich,” and the Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor to observe “Trump continues to do the work for the DSCC in #AZSen.”

• In Ohio, POLITICO reports that Jane Timken, a self-proclaimed “MAGA ally,” is “under fire for ‘squishiness’ on Trump,” as conservative activists are calling on the state and national party to reject her candidacy. 

• Also in Ohio, Cleveland.com’s Brent Larkin is out with a new column highlighting how the GOP Senate primary “will be a nasty affair filled with wild accusations, crazed conspiracy theories and enough nauseating and disqualifying embraces of Donald Trump’s lies to make millions of rational Ohioans reach for a barf bag.”

Read more about how GOP primaries are intensifying across the map:

Newsweek: Donald Trump Slams Arizona GOP AG Mark Brnovich, Says He’s ‘Always On TV Promoting Himself’

• Former President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich that “no Arizona Republican will vote” for him if he doesn’t publicly support 2020 election fraud claims.

• In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Trump urged “the lackluster Attorney General of Arizona, Mark Brnovich, to get on the ball and catch up with the great Republican Patriots in the Arizona State Senate.”

• “As massive crime in the 2020 Election is becoming more and more evident and obvious, Brnovich is nowhere to be found,” Trump said. “He is always on television promoting himself, but never mentions the Crime of the Century, that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election, which was Rigged and Stolen.”

• He added: “Arizona was a big part and Brnovich must put himself in gear, or no Arizona Republican will vote for him in the upcoming elections. They will never forget, and neither will the great Patriots of our Nation!”

• Trump’s continued voter fraud claims have sparked a rift in the Republican Party in recent months.

POLITICO: Top MAGA ally under fire for ‘squishiness’ on Trump

• In a Republican Party where a candidate’s viability is measured in degrees of fealty to the former president, the crowded field of primary opponents is insisting Timken has failed a key test.

• Days after entering the Senate race in February, Timken changed gears and called on Gonzalez to resign. But despite that — and despite calling both Trump impeachments a “sham” — Timken’s foes and two dozen conservative activists penned an open letter this weekend to the state Republican Party that called on primary voters to reject her candidacy.

• Trump’s outsize role was underscored two months ago when he hosted what was referred to as a “Hunger Games” exercise, forcing Timken, Mandel, technology company executive Bernie Moreno and investment banker Mike Gibbons to sit at the same table and make their case for the Senate nomination in his presence at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

• At the meeting, Trump reminded Timken — who served one term as his handpicked state party chair — that she didn’t initially condemn Gonzalez for his impeachment vote.

Cleveland Plain Dealer (Opinion): A Trump-tinged GOP Senate primary in Ohio unlike any other – and not in a good way: Brent Larkin

• In the months ahead, Ohio will be home to what might be a reputation-ruining event for the ages, otherwise known as the Republican Party primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.

• Before it’s over – the date of the spring 2022 primary is not yet set – it will be a nasty affair filled with wild accusations, crazed conspiracy theories and enough nauseating and disqualifying embraces of Donald Trump’s lies to make millions of rational Ohioans reach for a barf bag.

• Now comes a Senate primary where the candidates will spend the next year repeatedly proving that they think the views of a 74-year-old Florida resident matter infinitely more than what might be best for the 11.8 million Ohioans they want to “represent.”

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